Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Should Continue Even without Settlement Freeze

On March 3, 2010, the Arab Peace Initiative
Follow-Up Committee, made up of Arab foreign ministers, approved
the renewal of indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations for a
period of four months only. Following this decision, 'Abd Al-Rahman
Al-Rashed, Al-Arabiya director-general and former editor of the
London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote an op-ed for the
paper in which he criticized the Palestinian custom of obtaining
Arab permission to negotiate with Israel, which dates back to the
era of Yasser Arafat.

In his op-ed, Al-Rashed stated that the current
international support gives the Palestinians the best possible
opportunity to establish their state, and added that both
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 'Abbas and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to deal with opposition at
home, but that right now Abbas must focus solely on Palestinian
interests.

Inquiry & Analysis No. 596

Behind the Scenes of Arab Politics: Arab Sources on
Renewing of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

By: H. Varulkar*

On March 3, 2010, the Arab Peace Initiative
Follow-Up Committee, comprising Arab foreign ministers, decided to
give "one last chance" to negotiations with Israel, approving the
renewal of indirect talks between Israel and the PA for a period of
four months only. The committee convened in response to U.S.
pressure on PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas to renew negotiations with
Israel, and on the Arab countries to back him in this move. The
Arab backing is meant to enable 'Abbas to back down from his demand
that negotiations with Israel be conditional upon an absolute
freeze on Israeli settlements, including in Jerusalem.

The committee's decision represents a partial and
time-limited withdrawal from its former resolutions, which backed
'Abbas' demand for a complete settlement freeze. Following its
November 12, 2009 meeting, the committee issued a statement saying:
"[We] uphold the Arab position that the renewal of negotiations
[between Israel and the PA] requires Israel to meet its legal
obligations and put a complete halt to [the construction in] the
settlements..." The committee's stance therefore represents a
softening in the overall Arab position - not just the Palestinian
position - in response to American pressure.

It should be noted, however, that even at the
November 2009 meeting, the foreign ministers already discussed the
steps to be taken in the event that the talks fail. According to
the concluding statement, one of the options would be to call for a
special Security Council meeting to discuss the Arab-Israeli
conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967
borders within a definite period of time. Qatari Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Aal Thani said at the
meeting that the next Arab League summit would have to consider
revoking the Arab peace initiative altogether. The possible failure
of the talks was also addressed by the Saudi daily Al-Watan
in its November 16, 2009 editorial. The daily stated that the
failure of the talks has created a situation in which the
Palestinians have new options, such as the return to armed
resistance.

The recent decision of the follow-up committee,
which places a time limit on the talks and discusses alternatives
to negotiations, is another step in the new policy adopted by the
Arabs since January 2009, which places conditions and constraints
on the Arab peace initiative. At the January 2009 economic summit
in Kuwait, Saudi King 'Abdallah bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz announced that
the Arab peace initiative "would not stay [on the table] forever."
Likewise, the concluding statement of the March 2009 Doha summit
placed constraints on the initiative in response to Syrian
pressures: it stipulated that Israel must not only accept the
initiative as is, but must also begin to meet its obligations as
set out in the initiative's "sources of authority" - namely U.N.
Resolutions 242 and 338. These resolutions exclude the element of
normalization with all Arab countries, which does appear in the
Arab peace initiative.

Saudi Arabia's acquiescence to the decisions of
the follow-up committee (in November 2009 and March 2010) indicates
that even this country is gradually withdrawing from its peace
initiative. (The Arab peace initiative was already amended
significantly, immediately after its presentation in 2002, at the
insistence of the Arab countries, who added a clause on the
Palestinians' right of return). In fact, the Saudi consent
represents another step towards aligning its positions with the
other Arab countries, as explicitly stated by Saudi Foreign
Minister Sa'ud Al-Faisal after the March 3 meeting.

On March 10, 2010, the follow-up committee held
an emergency meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, to
address the Israeli government's decision to approve 1,600 new
housing units in East Jerusalem. The committee demanded that Israel
cancel the decision, otherwise it would be pointless to hold
negotiations. According to Arab League secretary-general 'Amr
Moussa, Mahmoud 'Abbas told him that he had no intention of
starting negotiations in the present circumstances.